Cata-The-Atlas-Of-My-Dreams

Home , Golnaz Fathi, Iran Heritage Foundation, Parviz Tanavoli

Hessam KHALATBARI & Yassi METGHALCHI ont le plaisir de vous convier au vernissage de l’exposition

JEUDI 6 FÉVRIER 2020 À PARTIR DE 18H00

BIJAN SAFFARI I REZA LAVASSANI I GOLNAZ FATHI I REZA DERAKHSHANI PARVIZ TANAVOLI I SHAHRIAR AHMADI I MOHSEN AHMADVAND I LEYLY MATINE-DAFTARY I FEREYDOON OMIDI I SAMIRA ALIKHANZADEH FARNAZ RABIEIJAH I MORTEZA SHABANI I BAHMAN DADKHAH

216 rue Saint Martin 75003 Paris, France T. +33 1 42 71 87 83 - [email protected] www.galerienicolasflamel.com PREFACE

Sincere congratulations to Hessam Khalatbari and Yassi Metghalchi for curating this remarkable exhibition of modern and contemporary visual art of Iran. For their relentless efforts in these testing times, they deserve applause and appreciation. I am neither a curator nor a significant collector. My association with the arts of Iran goes back to my long engagement with the Iran Heritage Foundation (IHF). The IHF organised the first comprehensive exhibition of modern and contemporary Iranian art in Britain, curated by the formidable Rose Issa, at the Barbican in 2001. Many exhibitions, festivals and endeavours have since followed. IN LOVING MEMORY Artists, academics, intellectuals and the creative community have been the torch bearers who have preserved the heritage and culture of Iran throughout OF BIJAN SAFARI... millennia; for that they deserve acknowledgement and wholehearted support. The works which appear in the ‘’Atlas of my Dreams’’ belong to some of the most internationally recognised and accomplished artists of current times. I wish them and the exhibition great success.

Maryam Alaghband February 2020

3 4 BIJAN SAFFARI Bijan Saffari (1933-2019) EDUCATION 1953 – 1958 Diploma in Architecture at the École Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris. ACTIVITIES From 1959 to 1980 Bijan Saffari returns to Tehran to work as an interior architect; He was a teacher at the Faculty of Decorative Arts, Tehran University; Saffari was exhibited in a number of painting & design group and solo shows. He was a founding Member of the Shiraz Festival of Arts; and managing ‘Kargahe Namayesh’, a centre for experimental theatre. In 1980, he returns to France where he has lived ever since, continuing with his interior architecture projects and adding sculptures to his repertoire of works. Bijan Saffari was a true inspirational mentor and innovator of ideas to many contemporary artists. He was a meticulous draughtsman and his work reveals a great talent for drawing. Objects & Figures depicted in a sensitive manner, nonchalant and making out to be oblivious to the presence of any observers. As he says, ‘Water illuminates, so does watercolour.’

BIJAN SAFFARI, UNTITLED - ACRYLIC ON CANVAS - 116X81 CM - 1993 5 6 REZA LAVASSANI Born in 1962 in Tehran, Iran, Reza Lavassani is known for his oil paintings and sculptures. Lavassani’s works are defined by his very personal visual interpretation of elements he chooses from poetry and mythological fables. In his work, he is particularly careful about the approach to the process of art making and uses his own developed techniques to create some of the most unique and adventurous shapes and forms. Lavassani’s interest in ancient Eastern philosophy, religion and history inspired him to spend years studying literature and mythology; subjects that are central to all that he creates as an artist. His fable-like trees, waves, horses, birds, the four elements of nature and musical instruments, taken from literature and especially Persian poetry, are uniquely his, and even though they don’t resemble reality, they all possess a sense of poetic realness.For Reza Lavassani, art is defined through the ‘process’ of creation. Before work begins on the actual piece, numerous imaginative series of drawing and sketches are done until the final element is born. His large sculptures are themselves valuable art pieces and documents presenting Lavassani’s devotion to craftsmanship. He is also known for his use of traditional methods of art making, techniques of papier-mâché for his sculptures. His works are also his moral strongholds when it comes to him celebrating the cycle of life, a notion that not only ideologically is very precious to him but one that also defines his chosen method in creating art to a great extent. His dedication to use recycled paper as his main tool, is derived from this belief. Lavassani has held several solo exhibitions in Iran and has been part of numerous national and international exhibitions and art fairs. He has been the recipient of several awards including UNESCO’s Noma Concourse in 2007 and 1994 and the first prize of Tehran’s 4th Biennial of Sculpture and 6th Biennial of Illustration. His work has also been included in a number of publications inside and outside Iran in addition to being part of several important private collections. Reza Lavassani received a BA in painting from University of Tehran’s Faculty of Fine Arts in 1991. In 2019 Venice Biennal exhibits a large installation of Reza Lavassani at Iran Pavillion.

REZA LAVASSANI, BLOWING THE HORN SERIES - PAPIER-MÂCHÉ - 120X80 CM - 2012 7 8 GOLNAZ A trained calligrapher, Fathi has the ability to skillfully transform known FATHI language into form and composition. Having discovered calligraphy while studying graphic design at Tehran’s Azad University, she later left to train at the Calligraphy Association of Iran for six years. As a result Fathi was the first woman to win an award for Ketabat, a distinct genre of calligraphy. She soon tired of the discipline’s rules and regulations and thus created a new form of expression in her paintings: an imaginary language deeply rooted in Persian tradition while simultaneously hinting at a social renaissance. Her paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known coded alphabet. The strength of her work stems from the drive to express emotions that cannot be pinned down into words; Fathi’s works succeed where language fails.

She has been the subject of solo shows in New York, Shanghai, London, Beirut, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Dubai amongst others. Some of these include,Contemplations, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Singapore(2016) khat- Line, The Third Line, Dubai, UAE (2016), Dance Me to the End of Night, October Gallery, London (2014); Marked: Contemporary Takes on Mark-Making, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York and Hong Kong (2014); The Living Road, Pearl Lam Gallery, Shanghai, China (2013). Fathi has been exhibited nearly 80 of worldwide group shows, including ‘All happens after sunset”, MOCA art pavilion shanghai 2017, Frontier reimagined, Museo di Grimani,Venice biennale 2015, Writing non writing, Museum of Contemporary Art,CAA Hangzhou,China 2015, The Other Half of Iran, Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia (2013); World Stories: Young Voices, Brighton Museum, UK (2012); The Art of Writing, Art Forum of Wiesbaden, Germany (2011); Iran Inside Out, Chelsea Museum, New York (2009) and participated in the International Woman Artists’ Biennial, South Korea (2009). She was also part of Word Into Art exhibition at the British Museum (2006). Fathi received the Young Global Leader Award in 2011.

Her works are housed in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, New York; Asian Civilization’s Museum, Singapore; Brighton & Hove Museum, England; The British Museum, London; Carnegie Mellon University, Doha, Qatar; Museum of Islamic Art, Malaysia; Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi, India and The Farjam Foundation Dubai.

GOLNAZ FATHI, UNTITLED - ACRYLIC ON CANVAS - 170 X 123 CM - 2017 9 10 REZA Painter, musician and performance artist Reza Derakshani was born DERAKHSHANI in Sangsar, in the northeast of Iran. He grew up in a great black tent on the top of a mountain, among horses and fields of blue and yellow wild flowers. Reza moved from the study of constellations of light made by moonlight shining through tiny holes in the tent to the study of mathematics in high school, and visual arts in Tehran and the U.S.

The long and circuitous road of Derakshani’s artistic and geographic migration eventually found him in New York City, where he made a home and worked for sixteen years. He later moved to Italy, eventually returning to Tehran for seven years before leaving his troubled homeland once again in 2010. Derakshani currently lives and works between Austin and Dubai.

Reza Derakshani’s first solo show at the age of nineteen was held at the renowned Ghandriz Art Gallery in Tehran. Following this auspicious debut, he participated in many group and solo exhibit. His work has been widely exhibited and collected internationally. Derakshani’s passion for beauty and his nuanced perception of the light and dark of the world has found expression in many different forms. Yet it is within contemporary painting that he has experienced true liberation and fulfillment as an artist. The challenging techniques, innovation and mental stimulation inherent to contemporary art have led him to create a meditative solitude that results in pure freedom of self-expression. Reza’s work, known for its diversity and originality, has gained recognition for its fearless exploration of form and style, and the skill and vision necessary to merge an unbending tradition with a wild contemporary spirit.

REZA DERAKHSHANI, SHIRAZ CYPRESS - OIL AND GOLD PASTE ON CANVAS - 160X140 CM - 2018-19 11 12 PARVIZ Parviz Tanavoli is one of the most influential and pioneering artists of the Middle TANAVOLI East. He was born in 1937 and lives and works between Iran and Canada. Tanavoli is a founder member of the Saqqakhaneh School (a school of art that derives inspiration from Iranian folk art and culture), described as a ‘spiritual Pop Art’ and is now considered the inspiration for progressive modern Iranian art.

Upon graduating from the Brera Academy of Milan in 1959, Tanavoli taught sculpture for three years at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He then returned to Iran and assumed the directorship of the sculpture department at the University of Tehran, a position he held for 18 years.

His latest solo exhibitions were a retrospective held in 2003 at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and at the Davis Museum in the Wellesley College, USA in 2015. Prior to that he had held solo and group exhibitions internationally. His work has been displayed at the British Museum, the Grey Art Gallery, New York University, the Isfahan City Center, Nelson Rockefeller Collection, New York, Olympic Park, Seoul, South Korea, the Royal Museum of Jordan, the Museum of Modern Art, Vienna, Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Shiraz University, Iran, Tate Modern UK.

PARVIZ TANAVOLI, ESCAPE FROM NIGHTINGALE CAGE II - 32X51X11 CM - UNIQUE EDITION - 2019 13 14 Hands, executed in bronze, grasping a grille. I cannot account for what impelled me to create this piece- whether I was anxious about having reached a point of nothingness and was trying to ward off the tendency, or whether I wanted to succumb to it and bring it to realization as a creative source. It was probably my state of mind that led me to depict so starkly the hands grasping the grille, as if pleading for help.

PARVIZ TANAVOLI, HAND AND CAGE - MIXED MEDIA - 35X30X4 CM - UNIQUE EDITION - 2013 PARVIZ TANAVOLI, HAND AND CAGE - MIXED MEDIA - 35X30X4 CM - UNIQUE EDITION - 2013 15 16 SHAHRIAR Born: 1979, kamyaran[Kurdestan], Iran AHMADI SOLO EXIBITIONS 2016: 1001 Nights,Dastan Basement,Istanbul Contemporary,Istanbul,Turkey 2014: Highlight, AB Gallery, Luzern, Switzerland 2013: Recent Works, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2013: Kiss,AB Gallery,Zurich,Switzerland 2011: Archaic Techniques of Chemia, AB Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland 2011: Miraj, Etemad Gallery, Dubai, UEA 2010: Archaic Techniques of Lovemaking, AB Gallery, Luzern ,Switzerland 2009: At the Rice Seller’s Arcade, Etemad Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2008: Rumi in my Chalice(2),B21Gallery,Dubai,UEA 2007: Rumi in my Chalice(1),Mah Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2006: What is maddeh, Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2004: The Story of the Merchant and Parrot(2),Golestan Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2004: Retrospectiv, Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2003: The Story of the Merchant and Parrot (1), Elahe Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2002: Lion and Lord, Elahe Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2000: Sama(Mystrism Dance), Barg Gallery, Tehran, Iran

ART FAIRS 2017: ArtDubi,Dubai,UEA 2016: IC,Istanbul,Turky 2014: Art Dubai,Dubai,UEA 2013: Art Dubai,Dubai,UEA 2012: Art Dubai,Dubai,UEA 2012: Art Abu Dhabi,Abu Dhabi,UAE 2012: Cologne Art Fair,Cologne,Germany 2011: Kunts Zurich,Zurich,Switzerland 2011: Munich Contempo,Munich,Germany 2011: Contemporary Istambul Art,Istambul,Turky 2011: Art Paris Abu Dhabi,Abu Dhabi,UAE 2011: Scope Basel,Artbasel,Basel,Switzerland 2011: Art Dubai,Madinat Jumeirah,Dubai,UAE 2010: Slick,Pairs Museum of Modern Art,France 2010: Istsanbul Art Faier, Istambul.Turky 2008: Art Paris-Abu Dhabi ,Abu Dhabi ,UEA 2008: Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE

SELECT PRIVATE COLLECTIONS Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art,Tehran ,Iran Salsali Private Museum, Dubai, UEA Tiroche Deleon collection, Jaffa ,Israel Maneli Kaikavoosi,Dubai,Tehran Culture bright Fondation ,Luzern,Switzerland Pasargad Bank,Tehran,Iran SHAHRYAR AHMADI, KIMYA FROM « ARCHAIC TEACHNIQUES OF ALCHEMY » SERIES Eghtesad e Novin Bank,Tehran,Iran ACRYLIC AND GOLD LEAF ON CANVAS - 55 X 90 CM (DIPTYCH) - 2018 17 18 MOHSEN Born 1982 – Tehran AHMADVAND BA in Painting – Tehran University Faculty of Fine Arts

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2020 – “LION AND PISTACHIO” , Etemad Gallery, Tehran 2018 – “Sohrab & the Bees & the Rose & the nightingales”, Mohsen Ahmadvand & Fereydoun Ave , Etemad Gallery and Dastan Basement Gallery, Tehran 2014 – “LION& BANANA”, Etemad Gallery, Tehran 2012 – “I SCREAM”, Etemad Gallery, Tehran 2011 – XVA Gallery, Asia One , Art Hong Kong 11, Wanchai , Hong Kong 2008 – XVA Gallery, Dubai,UAE 2008 – Seyhoun Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2007 – 2008 - Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran 2007 – Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran 2006 – Seyhoun Gallery, Tehran

COLLECTIONS – Acquired By The Houston Museum of Fine Arts . – Acquired By The British Museum . – Kamel Lazaar Foundation . – Private Collection of Many Important Collectors.

PRIZES/AWARDS 2015 – Campus France Award by French government, Paris. 2011 – Nominated for Jameel Prize 2011, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2006 – First Visual Arts Festival Prize by Faber Castel, Tehran

BOOKS 2017 – Honar , the Afkhami Collection of Modern and Contemporary Iranian Art. The first book on one of the finest private collections, published by PHAIDON. 2015 – World Champion “Jahan Pahlevan”, complied by Arash Tanhai, Look Publications 2014 – Contemporary Iranian Art, Roots and New Perspectives, Hamid Keshmirshekan, Nazar art publications, Tehran 2014 – “A Selection of Drawings by Mohsen Ahmadvand”, Bon-gah Publications . 2014 – Pioneers of new art, Javad Mojabi, Behnegar Publications, Tehran 2013 – Drawing Art in Iran, by Hasan Morizi, Peykareh Publications, Tehran 2013 – Contemporary Iranian Art: New perspectives, Hamid Keshmirshekan, Saqi Books, London , UK 2007 – A Book of Persian Cartoon, Koochak Publications, Tehran MOHSEN AHMADVAND, LION AND SAFFRON - PEN AND INK AND COLOURED PENCIL ON PAPER - 27,5X19CM - 2019 19 20 LEYLY A significant figure in the artistic history of the Middle East, Leyly MATINE-DAFTARY Matine-Daftary was amongst the few artists who changed the historically stolid dictates of traditionalism prevalent in the region. In addition to establishing a personal style of modernism, she helped promulgate the movement, now so firmly evident in Iran and in the Arab world, which produced a great number of exceptional and internationally renowned female artists.

Leyly Matine-Daftary was born in Tehran, Iran in 1937. Her father, Ahmad Matine-Daftary, was Prime Minister of Iran. After completing her elementary education in Tehran, she attended Cheltenham Ladies College and continued her education at the Slade School of Fine Arts in London, from which she received a degree in Fine Arts. She returned to Tehran in the late 1950s and began a career as a professional artist and also as an educator, becoming a lecturer on sculpture and sculpting at the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University. In 1961 she married Kaveh Farman-Farmaian with whom she had two children, Kamran and Mansureh.

Matine-Daftary was at the forefront of the arts in the Middle East, with great involvement in the Tehran Biennials - the genesis of the current direction of contemporary arts in the region - and in the Shiraz Arts Festival, for which Matine-Daftary created the public aesthetic through her iconic design of posters, costumes and various attendant identifying material.

Leyly Matine-Daftary passed away in Paris in 2007.

Her legacy of modernism and minimalism will continue to be one of the most significant influences in the development of the contemporary arts in the Middle East.

LEYLY MATINE-DAFTARY, UNTITLED - OIL ON CANVAS - 92 X 73 CM - 1987 21 22 SAMIRA Samira Alikhanzadeh was born in 1967, Tehran. MA painting, ALIKHANZADEH Azad University, Art and Architecture school, Tehran. 12 Solo Exhibitions in Iran, Switzerland, United States, UK and Emirates Participating in more than 40 group exhibitions, biennials and art fairs in Iran, UK, France, Austria, Emirates, Monaco, Switzerland, Turkey, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, India and United States 2015 and 2019 > Participates at Iranian pavilion, Venice Biennale

COLLECTIONS Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Devi Art Foundation Salsali Private Museum The Afkhami Collection

SAMIRA ALIKHANZADEH, STROLL INSIDE KASHAN CARPET - NO 2 FROM MIRROR GARDEN SERIES - DIGITAL PRINT ON PLEXIGLASS - MIRROR & KASHAN CARPET - 2013 23 24 FARNAZ 1981, Tehran – Iran RABIEIJAH Member of the Association of Iranian Sculptors

EDUCATION AND AWARDS 2018 - Art resident at Cite International Des Arts, July& August / Paris, France 2015 - Magic of Persia Capital Prize Shortlisted / Dubai, Emirates 2012 - Winner of the “Best Guest” Prize of British Art Medal Society (The medal is kept in Coins and Medals section of The British Museum) 2008-2012 - Sculpting workshops mentoring by Master Parviz Tanavoli 2007 - Plant Biology (M.S.) / Tehran, Iran 2003 - Biology (B.S.) / Tehran, Iran

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2019 - “Re-” Exhibition, INJA Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2017 - “The Spinning Plate” Prints and Installation Exhibition in a dual show titled “The Impact of Tangency”, The MINE Gallery, Dubai, UAE 2015 - “Cardiac Cycle” Sculpture Exhibition, Shirin Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran 2012 - “Iran” Sculpture Exhibition, Shirin Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran

Re- collection is the continuance and return to my last collection titled The Spinning Plate where the elements of human existence and our presence in the cycle of life was on my mind. In this collection, my emphasis is on the repetitive meaning in this concern. Life and nature are piled high with repetition and we know them by their many faces. The repetition of day and night, the seasons of nature. The repetitive reproduction of species, of creating new generations and history. The everydayness of each day and the self which each day manifests as a new self which is just repeating what it had been just like the flowing of a river. Repetition creates memories; a return to the past and the opposite. It is a forward moving process. An expression of the passage of time. A continuous and uninterrupted process. Roots, branches, flowers and petals are all various parts of the life cycle of a plant which like all living things depends on type, gender, species and has had these special idiosyncrasies, a specific being whose presence in this collection emphasizes this subject; the struggle for the survival of humanity and the different eras of their lives which are always repeated differently.

FARNAZ RABIEIJAH, REVIVE FROM « RE- » COLLECTION » - COPPER ELECTROPLATED BRANCH - UNIQUE EDITION 110 X 55 X 30 CM - 2018 25 26 FEREYDOON Born in 1967, Roudbar, Iran OMIDI High school diploma in graphic Design in 1987, Tehran B.A. in Painting, Islamic azad University in 1993, Tehran M.A in Painting, University of art in 1998, Tehran Member of azad University, faculty of art author of Painting Workshop (published by Ministry of art) Member of Iranian society of Painters.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2019 - Ivan Gallery (The Shine) - Tehran 2016 - Ivan Gallery (Blue Day) - Tehran 2014 - Opera Gallery (London) - Flags 2013 - Opera Gallery, Paris (Universal Flags) curated by Hessam Khalatbari 2012 - Opera Gallery, Paris (Lettres Persanes) curated by Hessam Khalatbari Henna Art Gallery, Tehran XVA Gallery, Dubai 2010 - Henna Art Gallery, Tehran 2009 - Henna Art Gallery, Tehran Studio Plano Gallery, Venice 2008 - Caligraphy, Fereydoun Ave Gallery XVA Gallery, Dubai 2007 - Caligraphy, Fereydoun Ave Gallery 2006 - Tehran Gallery 2004 - Square, Iranian Artist’s House, Tehran 2003 - Collage Iranian Artist’s House, Tehran 2002 - Iranian Artist’s House 2001 - Iranian Artist’s House Gallery, Installation and Video Art (city) Azad Designers Gallery (painting on plates) 2000 - Barg Gallery, 4 Painters, 4 Gallery 1998 - Fereshteh Gallery, Collection of plants 1996 - Fereydoun Ave Gallery 1995 - Fereydoun Ave Gallery

FEREYDOON OMIDI, OIL COLOUR AND SILVER PAPER ON CANVAS - 150 X 180 - 2016 27 28 MORTEZA

SHABANI Born in Tehran 1980

- Graduate of Tehran University Faculty of Fine Arts Sculpture - Atbin Gallery Expatriate Apadana Exhibit February 2014 The Iron Workshop Supervisor of the Seventh Symposium on the Tehran Stone in September 2015. - Painting and Sculpture Group (Persian garden party) Exhibition by Nicolas Flamel Gallery Paris, France 2015 - Selected Works at IBS Charity College, London, Oct. 2015 Construction of a Height 7.30m (Sarve Chaman) city sculpture in Tehran, June-2016 Selected Artist in the fourth Symposium of the Holy Defense Metal of Tehran in September 2016 Selected Effect in the 5th Urban Banner of the Beautification Organization of Tehran 2016 - Art lecturer at Tehran Art and Architecture University since 2010 - Executive of the eighth Tehran Symposium on the Tehran Milad Tower April 2017 -The Selection of the Baku International Symposium stone on Sept.30, 2017 - Selected Works at IBS Charity College, London, Oct. 2017

MORTEZA SHABANI, « THE CROWN » - BRONZE - EDITION 1/5 - 18 X 18 X 10 CM - 2020 29 30 BAHMAN Bahman Dadkhah was born in Iran in 1941 and studied DADKHAH at Tehran University, graduating in 1966. His first solo exhibition was in 1961, and over the next seven years he held more exhibitions in galleries in Tehran.

The late sixties saw him experiment with a range of media and techniques including sculpture. Further exhibitions of his work have taken place across Europe, the USA and in Japan, whilst also receiving numerous awards.

In 1984 he moved to Paris and since 1987 Dadkhah has been living and working in the Cher region of France

BAHMAN DADKHAH, FROM « THE CIRCLE OF THE LIGHT » SERIES BRONZE - 40X21X8 CM - 2003 31 32 EXPOSITION du 6 au 20 février 2020

CURATEURS Hessam KHALATBARI Yassi METGHALCHI

GRAPHIC DESIGN Nicolas IMBERT (COLLECTIF 112)

GALERIE NICOLAS FLAMEL 216 rue Saint Martin 75003 Paris, France +33 1 42 71 87 83 En partenariat avec [email protected] www.galerienicolasflamel.com